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He said goodbye and showed himself out. I waited impatiently to see his truck disappear down the road, then took off behind the house to hop on my bike and ride into town. I had spent more time than I cared to admit raiding the clothes I packed for my stay, only to determine beyond a doubt that I had absolutely nothing to wear that seemed appropriate for the event on the square. I had noticed a clothing boutique near the Lakeside Coffee House and thought maybe someone there could give some advice on what people wore to that sort of thing.
The small store was called Daisy’s, but I was a little disheartened to see the older woman working inside, who just so happened to betheDaisy the store was named for. As friendly as she was, I didn’t think she’d have a clue about what a woman my age should wear. With a closer look, her inventory looked out of touch too. But maybe that was the trick to the effortless casual style of dress everyone around here wore. For something so simple, it still proved to be incredibly illusive to me. I certainly wasn’t in any position to pretend I understood the local fashion. I had dressed down my designer clothes in every way I could and still turned heads everywhere I went because of how much I stood out. I would just have to put myself at Daisy’s mercy.
“I’ve never been to one of your town square events before,” I explained. “I’m new around here. So…I really have no idea what people usually wear.”
“Same thing they’d wear any other day, really,” she shrugged with a friendly smile, looking my outfit up and down a green sleeveless chiffon dress with a cummerbund waist and beaded neckline. Like everything I wore, it was stubbornly wrinkled from the humid weather.
“No need to wear your Sunday best, dear.”
“Oh, right. Silly me,” I laughed, trying to play it off even though it was one of the most casual dresses I owned. “I found some sundresses in my mother’s closet, but she was a bigger size than me. So I’m stuck with what I brought with me, and none of it seems to fit in.”
“I imagine most people are a bigger size than you around here,” she quipped. “We don’t believe in dieting around these parts. But let me see what I have for you.”
She vanished into the back of the store behind a rack of clothes. Not long after, I found myself standing in front of the dressing room mirrors in a hideous paisley patchwork dress with cowboy boots and a matching hat on. I wanted to be polite, the way everyone around here was, but I had a hard time hiding the disgust on my face.
“This is very lovely,” I forced myself to say. “I just don’t know that it’s…me. Maybe just the hat and boots?”
“Sure thing, Hon. Get changed, and I’ll ring you up,” she said, swishing the fitting room curtain closed behind me so I could change back.
I took the boots and hat home and finally decided to pair them with the closest thing I had to match what the women around town wore. It was an Oscar de la Renta floral print dress that I had bought to wear for a friend’s gallery opening. The fit-and-flair cut hugged my curves and always made me especially popular with all the gentlemen when I wore it. The bright blue flowers around the hem made my eyes pop. It still didn’t seem quite right, but then again, nothing I tried on was. BecauseIwasn’t quite right in Silver Point. I hoped the boots and hat would camouflage me somehow so I could blend in for once.
I curled the ends of my hair and did a cat-eye liner with petal pink lip gloss. With one last inspection in the mirror, I thought I was looking pretty damn good. If the rest of the people in Silver Point couldn’t appreciate it, well, then that was their problem, I decided.
The moment I was finished getting ready, my phone lit up with a text notification. I felt conflicted at the sight of Evan’s name flashing across the screen.
Evan: Big plans tonight? What exactly does a weekend in a place like that entail?
I hadn’t given in to his request for a big heart-to-heart, no matter how much he begged. But I had caved in a little, texting him casually here and there. I was lonely in the evenings and couldn’t resist a friendly voice to talk to. Even if it was in the form of my traitor scumbag ex-boyfriend. I still couldn’t bring myself to confess to Katie that he and I were sort of talking again. I knew she’d lecture me, and I also knew everything she said would be right. I just wasn’t in the mood to hear it, even though I probably needed to.
I pushed aside the imaginary sound of Katie scolding me in my head and picked up the phone to reply.
Melody: I have a date with a firefighter. There’s a lavish event downtown. Very small town chic.
Three dots popped up on the screen, showing he was typing a response, then they vanished. I bit my bottom lip as I watched it happen several more times, the dots appearing, then disappearing again. Maybe it was a little harsh to lie and say I was going on a date, but it wasn’t anywhere near as harsh as when he cheated on me. I was free to see whoever I wanted, which was more than I could say for him when he hooked up with Natasha.
Thinking about the two of them together left a bad taste in my mouth, so I threw my phone in my bag and headed downstairs to get a glass of water. As I stood in the kitchen drinking it slowly, my nerves started to kick in.
I felt a growing urge to cancel on Derek. I had enough going on with trying to sort through my feelings with Evan, especially now that we were talking again. I didn’t need to make things more complicated by going out with a hot, single guy. I tapped my fingers nervously on the countertop, taking one long, slow sip of water after another as my mind raced through all the factors to consider.
Sure, Derek was single. But he also didn’t seem too open on the subject. When it came up, he could have easily flirted with me if he wanted to but didn’t. On top of that, I was safe because he thought I was engaged. That was for the best. It would remove all temptation for both of us, right? And I would be left alone to figure out what I would do about Evan before I returned to New York.
I inhaled deeply and muttered to myself on the exhale, “Just go, Melody. You’re overthinking this. You might actually have fun, and when’s the last time that happened?”
It had to have been sometime before I caught Evan cheating, before my mom died so suddenly. How could I possibly figure out how I truly felt about Evan while I was so depressed and out of sorts? I had taken little steps to get my life in order around the lake house, and now it was time to take a step out of surviving and back into thriving.
I let the minutes slip by, closing any window I had left to cancel until finally, the knock came on the door. Derek had arrived right on time.
I sucked in another deep breath for courage, then marched over to fling open the front door. Derek’s eyebrows raised as he looked me up and down with a bemused smile, his eyes squinted with an almost mischievous glimmer.
“Ugh, I knew it,” I deflated with defeat. “I’m overdressed.”
He stammered for a moment, smirking. “Well, uh…,” he scratched his chin. “Maybe the hat is just a bit much. The actual cowboys might think you’re making fun of them.”
My cheeks turned pink and hot as I took the hat off and tossed it across the room, not caring where it landed. “I should have known better than to trust Daisy for my fashion advice.”
“The boots are nice,” he offered, being kind enough not to share his opinions on my dress.
“Thanks,” I laughed out of embarrassment. “Should we go?”
